Wow! 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, and now 2020 in Bordeaux: five fine vintages out of six (and with 2022 lurking just around the corner). This suggests that Bordeaux found itself, throughout the second half of the 21st century’s second decade, in the Goldilocks zone of the global-warming process. Warmed into beatitude, in other words, but without the decadence of excess. Drinkers are spoiled for choice. The market, though, is hardly on fire—perhaps there is just too much good wine on offer at present, piled up inside the cavernous warehouses of the Quai des Chartrons, for the world’s wealthy to absorb.
Other explanations are possible: There is no longer a single critical hegemon to lead and galvanize the market; top Bordeaux has slid from fashion; wine itself is sliding from fashion; prices remain dissuasively high; the world has too much to worry about to dally over fine wine. Or, perhaps, the new critical watchwords—“freshness and precision”—are delivering wines that early drinkers find just a little intimidating, a little too serious, a little too tense.
2020 is a test case: It’s a very good and sometimes great vintage that is nothing at all like 1982, nothing at all like 1989 or 1990, nothing at all like 2000, and nothing at all like 2009. Its stylistic antecedents are 1996 (a succès d’estime above all), 2005 (still more admired than loved or enjoyed), and the grand but stern 2010. In truth, 2016 was cut from that cloth, though more gently and tenderly so; so, too, was 2019, though it has more inner amplitude. 2020 advances the aesthetic argument further; the optics are still more polished; the dance still more aerial. There are some magnificent wines in 2020, but they can be daunting. It’s a vintage full of intellectual grist, and almost of spiritual striving, too; there are few “pleasure bombs.” Among the successes, there’s a handful of surprisingly and almost shockingly daring wines that push the aesthetic boundaries of Bordeaux firmly in an easterly direction, as I have written in some of my notes.
As Michael Schuster’s exemplary initial vintage report made clear, it was a vintage of successive and varied extremes: mild to begin with, then very wet and hot, then wet and cooler, then very dry though not particularly hot, then very hot (and very wet). Truly sustained, settled heat came only in the first half of September; there were cool nights throughout summer. It was very challenging for growers, especially in their combat with mildew. The various extremes cancelled each other out, hence what Michael described as “the chaud–froid character of the year”: sometimes dramatically concentrated, occasionally opulent—but always fresh. Those challenges mean that the successes are mainly found among the elite; there are plenty of disappointments from the less well-resourced. (Remember, though, that the elite now own plenty of “lesser châteaux,” too.) Ripeness among the less successful is sometimes an issue; so, too, is a coarseness of grain, with sometimes clumsy oak. Tannic amplitude comes and goes, depending on the aesthetic star guiding each chai (though no serious wine is slender or skinny). Best, I think, to read tasting notes carefully (ours and others) before committing to purchase.
Related
Final point. If you’re a Burgundy lover who switched off from Bordeaux years ago, considering them all too ripe, powerful, oaky, and assertive… it’s definitely time to take a second look.
Andrew Jefford’s top Bordeaux 2020 wines
Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 99
Château Palmer 98
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Château Cheval Blanc 97
Château La Mission Haut-Brion 97
Château Montrose 97
Château Léoville Poyferré 96
Château Pape Clément 95
Château Calon Ségur 95
Château Cos d’Estournel 95
Château La Conseillante 95
Château La Fleur-Pétrus 95
Château Lafleur 95
Château Rauzan-Ségla 95
Château Trotanoy 95
Alter Ego 94
Château Angélus 94
Château Canon 94
Château Certan de May 94
La Chapelle de La Mission Haut-Brion 94
Domaine de Chevalier 94
La Dame de Montrose 94
Château Hosanna 94
Le Petit Cheval 94
Château Pichon Baron 94
Pichon Comtesse Réserve 94
Château Suduiraut 94
